Supporting the Module Sequencing Decision in ITIL Solution Implementation: An Application of the Fuzzy TOPSIS Approach

Nowadays a growing interest in Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) proves the trends and needs of their implementation in organizations. In order to successfully implement an ITSM project in an organization, it is essential to implement a suitable ITSM solution to support the related processes. The ITSM solution implementation can be conducted either in a big bang or phased manner by module. The present paper intends to offer the analytical means to support decision-making in the implementation sequence of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) solution modules. Since the decision problem of the module sequence involves a myriad of organizational and technical issues, which are vague in essence, we propose the Balanced ScoreCard (BSC) based evaluation criteria for supporting module sequencing decision along with fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) method to be applied. The proposed approach has been applied to a local Iranian company in the field of IT services to implement the acquired ITSM solution; the provided numerical example illustrates the applicability of the approach for the purpose. The priorities for the implementation sequence of the modules are determined in the case study.